Get the feedLet's bott-le it up and sell it
Sunday, Jun 21st 2009
I remember when I was in fifth grade and a new girl from England joined our class. The teacher asked her some general questions and she answered, “Well, I’ve got two brothers and one sister,” in her very charming accent. She had us from “Well, I’ve got….”. We were mesmerized. We all wanted to be her new best friend. My friend Maria repeated that line in her best fake English accent and we’d giggle about it as she tried for weeks to perfect it. That was over thirty years ago and I still remember.
Presently we have a friend from England who’s staying with us. JT says things like, “bott-le”, “my Nan used to say” and “can you give me a lift?” Everyone likes it when he talks.
When I asked a friend the question ‘”So what is it about the English accent that’s so attractive?” she responded, “It’s just sounds so elegant.”
But I don’t think that quite captures it.
Kids love the accent and I don’t think they’re particularly attracted to “elegant” things. They’re attracted to “cool” and the accent sounds cool, but somehow also endearing to us all. But why?
It’s a puzzler.
But if we could bott-le it up - whatever it is - we’d make millions.
Presently we have a friend from England who’s staying with us. JT says things like, “bott-le”, “my Nan used to say” and “can you give me a lift?” Everyone likes it when he talks.
When I asked a friend the question ‘”So what is it about the English accent that’s so attractive?” she responded, “It’s just sounds so elegant.”
But I don’t think that quite captures it.
Kids love the accent and I don’t think they’re particularly attracted to “elegant” things. They’re attracted to “cool” and the accent sounds cool, but somehow also endearing to us all. But why?
It’s a puzzler.
But if we could bott-le it up - whatever it is - we’d make millions.
Jean Yih Kingston
Jean Kingston, who co-founded SixSeeds, spends many of her waking hours in her SUV hauling carloads of children to various and sundry playing fields across the state of Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
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